Vesper has expanded its proprietary Shea & Cocoa equivalent fats coverage with 10 new Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmarks for Shea butter and its derivatives. Published weekly, these benchmarks combine inputs from renowned brokers to bring transparency to one of the most opaque supply chains in the market.

What's New:

• Expanded Shea Coverage: Weekly benchmarks for Crude, Semi-Refined, Handmade, Shea Olein, and Shea Oil across key West African origins (Ghana, Burkina Faso).

• Broad Market Input: Prices derived from renowned brokers, combining inputs from multiple partners to ensure robust and unbiased market representation.

Why It Matters:

Public price transparency for Shea is extremely limited, leaving procurement teams to rely on fragmented signals or single-source quotes. These proprietary VPIs provide the independent reference needed to verify quotes in a notoriously non-transparent market. Especially with Cocoa price movements of the past years, this was a much-requested product from our users

How to Use It:

• Prices Widget: Bookmark specific grades (e.g., Shea Stearin, Crude Shea Butter) for one-click access to the latest weekly prices.

• Price Comparison: Compare different processing stages (e.g., Crude vs. Semi-Refined) to identify value opportunities and spot diverging trends between product types.

• Cost Models: Select these Shea VPIs as ingredients in your Cost Models to forecast the total cost of confectionery, Chocolate or any other formulations using actual market data.

How to access?

Add to new or existing dashboards using the search function, or contact your Customer Success Manager at [email protected] to confirm which specific grades are currently active for your region.

Price forecasts now display weekly data points instead of monthly. The same 12-month coverage now gives you 52 weekly forecasts; 6-month coverage gives you 26 weekly forecasts.

What it does: Shows forecast at weekly intervals rather than monthly What you can do: Track expected price movements week-to-week and time purchases more precisely Why it matters: Spot trends between monthly intervals and answer the tactical question: commit this week or wait? Especially valuable when markets are volatile.

Added dedicated news coverage for packaging markets, tracking regulatory developments, sustainability initiatives, and material demand shifts across agricultural supply chains. Our 12th commodity-specific news feed, powered by AI models that filter global outlets to deliver only relevant packaging intelligence.

Why It Matters: Packaging costs can represent 10-30% of total product costs, yet most procurement teams track these markets separately from ingredient intelligence. Policy changes, material innovations, and input cost movements in packaging directly impact your bottom line and product competitiveness.

What's New:

• AI-filtered news from global outlets, eliminating noise

• Global and regional packaging market trends

• Regulatory developments and sustainability initiatives

• Material demand shifts and supply constraints

• View packaging feed individually or combined with all 12 commodity feeds

• Custom keyword notifications

• Direct keyword and region search within the feed

How to Use It:

1. Access Packaging News in your lefthand bar navigation

2. Set up keyword notifications for topics you're tracking

3. Search by keyword or region to find specific developments

Clear your widget selections instantly with the new "Deselect all" button in dropdown menus. Start fresh analysis without manually removing each selection or dealing with cluttered views.

What it does: One click clears all active selections in a widget What you can do: Reset widgets to empty state for clean analysis Why it matters: Faster workflow, cleaner screens, less clicking

Find it in the dropdown menus across most widgets.

Summary: Vesper has launched Technical Analysis, a new forward-looking capability that translates complex market behavior into clear, actionable timing signals. Previously reserved for trading experts using specialized tools, technical analysis is now accessible to every procurement professional through simple, visual indicators. This feature helps teams identify optimal buying windows by analyzing price patterns and momentum, delivering straightforward signals that answer the critical question: "When should I act?"—no financial expertise required.

What's New:

• Three procurement-focused indicators that signal market timing without financial jargon

• Moving Averages show if prices are trending above or below "normal" levels

• MACD detects when price movements are accelerating or losing steam

• RSI identifies when markets are overheated or oversold, highlighting potential reversals

• Clean visual signals (green/red arrows + Interpreted text) that make complex analysis instantly understandable

Why It Matters: Fundamental data tells you why prices should move, but not when the market will react. Technical Analysis bridges this gap by revealing when markets start believing the fundamental story. In volatile markets where timing can mean the difference between saving and losing on purchases in volatile markets. These indicators help procurement teams spot early trend changes, identify optimal entry points, and avoid buying at market extremes, without requiring trading expertise.

How to Use It:

1. Add Technical Analysis to any dashboard by using the search function

2. View the summary panel showing all three indicators at a glance

3. Green arrows indicate upward pressure/momentum, red indicates downward

4. Click the extended view for in depth analysis of the indicators

5. Combine with Vesper's other forward-looking tools for complete forward looking intelligence

Related Features: Technical Analysis completes Vesper's forward-looking toolkit:

• AI Forecasting predicts where prices are headed (the "how much")

• Dashboard fundamentals explain market drivers (the "why")

• Market reports provide expert context

• Now Technical Analysis reveals entry point (the "when")

Summary: Vesper has expanded its oils & fats coverage with a new weekly Vesper Price Index (VPI) benchmark for Crude Shea Butter (FOB Tema) from Ghana. This proprietary benchmark, exclusive to Vesper, provides a reliable, independent price reference for an increasingly strategic commodity in food manufacturing.

What's New:

• Weekly VPI price benchmark for Crude Shea Butter

• FOB Tema delivery basis from Ghana—the world's largest shea butter exporting country

• Full integration with existing oils & fats dashboards and pricing tools

Why It Matters: As cocoa prices continue to surge, we've seen increased demand from our user base for alternatives like Shea Butter, which has emerged as a critical cost-effective substitute for cocoa butter. This exclusive VPI benchmark responds directly to user feedback, delivering essential price transparency for those seeking different compositions to limit the effects of cocoa volatility on end product applications. Having Vesper's independent benchmark helps verify supplier pricing and supports more confident negotiations during this period of volatility in cocoa markets.

How to Use It:

1. Find the new Shea Butter (Crude) benchmark in the pricing widgets section

2. Add it to the price comparison widget for side-by-side analysis with cocoa butter prices

3. Incorporate this benchmark into your custom cost models to evaluate how chocolate formulation costs change when substituting with shea butter

4. Monitor weekly updates to identify emerging trends and optimize buying decisions

Related Features: This benchmark complements Vesper's existing offerings:

• Cocoa butter price benchmarks

• Vegetable oil price benchmarks

• Cost modeling for ingredient substitution analysis

Summary: Vesper has enhanced dashboard customization with the ability to set unique currency and unit preferences for each individual widget. This highly requested feature allows users to display multiple markets with different measurement standards side by side in their most relevant formats.

What's New:

• Individual currency and unit settings for each widget

• Widget-specific customization that persists independently of general settings

Why It Matters: Markets operate with different standards across regions and commodities. This enhancement eliminates the need to constantly toggle between general unit settings when analyzing diverse markets simultaneously. Users can now create truly customized multi-market dashboards that present each data series in its most relevant format.

How to Use It:

1. Click the currency switcher in the top right of any widget

2. Select your preferred currency and units for that specific widget

3. Use the three dot widget menu to duplicate widgets as needed to select price sources in different currencies in the same dashboard

4. Note that the general unit selector still functions but won't override your customized widgets

Related Features: This update complements other dashboard customization capabilities:

• Custom dashboard creation

• Analytical toolbox for cross-commodity comparison

• One-click correlations checks

• Exportable charts for reporting

Summary: Vesper has expanded our biodiesel ticket coverage to include additional markets and vintages. This enhancement provides greater visibility into renewable energy certificate costs used for regulatory compliance across key European markets.

What's New:

• Daily biodiesel ticket prices now covering three European markets:

  • Netherlands

  • United Kingdom

  • Germany

• Coverage for both 2024 and 2025 vintages across all markets

• Multiple certificate types reflecting different feedstock categories

Why It Matters: These certificates represent a critical cost component for regulatory compliance in the transport sector. By tracking prices across different markets and vintages, users can better understand compliance costs, identify market trends, and develop more effective strategies in response to policy shifts and market dynamics.

How to Use It:

1. Find these prices in the prices widget in your dashboard

2. Search for specific certificates in the product dropdown

3. Use Vesper's analytical tools to compare prices across markets

Related Features: This expansion complements our existing biofuels coverage:

• Regular Biodiesel Market Report with expert analysis

• Comprehensive price coverage for biofuel products and feedstocks

• Energy price benchmarks

• Import/export/tradeflows for key biofuel products

Whats New? Vesper is extending our AI-powered forecasting horizon from 6 to 12 months for select dairy, sugar, and oils commodities with established price histories (5+ years of data). This extended visibility enables procurement teams to move beyond tactical buying decisions to support annual budgeting and strategic planning.

Why it matters? Together with expert human analyst outlooks and comprehensive coverage of S&D/Fundamentals, the forecast powered by AI technology gives a comprehensive outlook on future market movements. The extended 12-month horizon allows users to incorporate forecasting into their decision making on more strategic timeframes.

As always, forecasting accuracy is transparently available on the platform for each individual product, allowing users to assess performance and incorporate it into decision-making.

How to Use It:

1. Access the forecast widgets directly on your custom dashboards (add through the search tool if needed)

2. If a product has a 12-Month forecast horizon, it will automatically be visible on your screen

3. Check forecast performance by choosing the 12-Month option in the accuracy dropdown

More products will be added to the extended range in the course of Q2

Related Features: This extended forecasting complements our existing forward-looking toolkit:

• Forward pricing up to 16 months ahead in the Forward Pricing widgets

• Expert analyst outlooks for both short and long-term market perspectives

• Fundamental market drivers dashboard for tracking supply and demand trends

These combined tools give procurement teams unprecedented visibility into future market movements for more confident strategic planning.